Wake Forest to highlight speakers who have influenced humanity

November 17, 2006

Four renowned speakers whose work has raised questions and issues regarding how we serve humanity will visit Wake Forest University in February as part of the “For Whose Humanity?” Pro Humanitate Film & Speaker Series. Funded by a grant by the Lilly Endowment, the four-week series will feature scientist Keith Campbell, filmmaker Keith Beauchamp, Sister Helen Prejean and real-life hero Paul Rusesabagina.

The series, which will begin Jan. 30 and end Feb. 22, will include a film screening and discussion each Tuesday that will relate to a lecture and question-and-answer session on the following Thursday. Admission is free and the public is invited.

The series schedule is as follows:

Week 1

7 p.m., Jan. 30, Pugh Auditorium: “The Island.” Screening of the 2005 action-thriller directed by Michael Bay that stars Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson as residents of a high-tech compound who discover they are clones.

7 p.m., Feb. 1, Brendle Recital Hall: “What We Can Do and Should We Do It?” Lecture by Keith Campbell, cell biologist/embryologist and head researcher behind the cloning of “Dolly” the sheep.

Week 2

7 p.m., Feb. 6, Pugh Auditorium: “The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till.” Screening of the documentary directed by Keith Beauchamp about Emmet Till, a 14-year-old black Chicago youth who was murdered by two white men in Money, Mississippi in 1955 for allegedly whistling at a white woman. The film tells the story of the Till family’s agony and reveals evidence surrounding the Till case.

7 p.m., Feb. 8, Brendle Recital Hall: “Race in the South: What the Civil Rights Movement Did and Did Not Accomplish.” Lecture by filmmaker and civil rights activist Keith Beauchamp.

Week 3

7 p.m., Feb. 13, Pugh Auditorium: “Dead Man Walking.” Screening of the 1995 drama starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn about Helen Prejean, a nun who must decide how to care for a man on Death Row while understanding the evil of his crimes.

7 p.m., Feb. 15, Brendle Recital Hall: “Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the U.S.” Lecture by Helen Prejean, Roman Catholic nun and one of the leading American advocates for abolishing the death penalty.

Week 4

7 p.m., Feb. 20, Pugh Auditorium: “Hotel Rwanda.” Screening of the 2004 film based on the true story of hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina saving the lives of more than a thousand refugees during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

The four lectures are also part of Wake Forest’s new “Voices of Our Time” series, an annual guest speaker series initiated by Wake Forest President Nathan O. Hatch, to bring renowned experts to campus to explore timely issues.

Prejean’s Feb. 15 lecture is designated as a Presidential Town & Gown Event, a new event hosted by Hatch that is intended to encourage more participation from the greater Piedmont Triad community.

Free parking will be available for all events. For more information, call (336) 758-6075.